A Florida auction house says bids for James Dean’s red nylon jacket from Rebel Without a Cause fell short.
Palm Beach Modern Auctions co-owner Rico Baca had valued the iconic garment, which Dean wore in the 1955 film, at $400,000 to $600,000 before the bidding started Saturday.
In a statement Monday, the auction house said bids did not meet the item’s reserve price. That’s the confidential, predetermined minimum Michael Scott of Hobe Sound was prepared to accept.
The iconic red nylon jacket James Dean wore in Rebel Without a Cause failed to meet the item’s reserve price during auction and is now available to be sold via private negotiations
James Dean, who played teen Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause, wore the jacket in the scene where he drove a 1949 Mercury Coupe
Interested bidders will now have a chance to privately negotiate an after-auction sale.
Dean died in a car crash in September 1955, about a month before the film’s premiere, while driving his Porsche Spyder, ‘Little Bastard.’
Scott told the Tampa Bay Times he has been in possession of the jacket since the 1980s and has documents showing the jacket was given by the film’s wardrobe supervisor, Leon Roberts, to the uncle of his friend, who then willed it to Scott after the men died.
Prior to Saturday’s auction, the jacket was valued at between $400,000 to $600,000
The jacket has purchased off the rack for use in the film. It has a cigarette burn in the sleeve and its elasticized waist was taken in to fit Dean
The jacket, which was bought off the rack, has a cigarette burn on the left sleeved and its elasticized waist had been taken in to fit Dean.
Dean, who played teen Jim Stark in the movie, wore the jacket in the scene where he drove a 1949 Mercury Coupe.
Previous pieces of Dean memorabilia have fetched handsome prices at auction. A white t-shirt he wore in Rebel Without a Cause fetched $6,000, while a shirt and pair of pants he donned in the movie East of Eden went for $23,000 combined, The Drive said.